The Year of Change... bring it on!

Happy Chinese New Year, Everyone!

So... it's only been 8 months since my last post, but who's counting? The "new year" seemed a good time to start doing this blog thing again, and what better time than the lunar new year?! (Since I missed the solar one a month or so ago...)

And since we're speaking of old news in general, I should mention that these beautiful pictures were actually taken during the Chinese New Year time LAST YEAR at a very cool Chinese Lantern Festival I went to in Nagasaki. I'm sure the name Nagasaki stands out in your minds from your history books as one of the two cities the U.S. dropped the A-bomb on in WWII. That is the dark side of Nagasaki's past. The ironic thing, in many ways, is that Nagasaki was one the first places in Japan that opened itself to the Western world after being shut off for so long. It had a rich history, colored by the many merchants who traded there and it was known for its progressivness in letting in western medicine, food, and other merchandise from around the world by ship. It's just sad that what it is most remembered for is a place devastated by the atomic bomb.


Nagasaki had its own Dutch town and "China town," of which the latter is still very happening today and this is where these pictures were taken. The lanterns were just gorgeous and warmed your soul in spite of the bitter cold.

This Chinese Year is the "Year of the Rat," also known to some as the "Year of Change" as is the first of the 12 year cycle. It is said that many people make big changes in their lives this year- starting a new job or getting married, for example. I doubt the latter will be true for me, but I can say that I will definitely be changing jobs sometime this year. I have officially turned in my papers to say that I will NOT be recontracting another year, and I have had no feelings of regret this year. It is definitely time to move on. My current contract finishes on August 1st, so I will, no doubt, be living it up until then. The next question, of course, is what comes next, and that is a good question right now. Most likely, I will be staying in Asia to teach for another year, but it won't be in Japan. I have sent my application in already for a job in Hong Kong, which could be very exciting as it's a brand new place, but it is also very tempting to return to Korea where I taught for a year before coming here. I guess I always thought, in the back of my mind, that I would go back there and I still have a lot of contacts there, so it will be very interesting to see where I end up in this Year of the Rat! To be continued.